I think Jo as deputy is a good move but after reading about a secret deal between Vince and Jo and other comments I’m worried that many think Jo Swinson is entitled to the leadership. I don’t get this sense of entitlement from her, but I do get it from some of her supporters and I don’t think it is healthy for the party. The membership deserve to know about any deals too.

This secret deal is rubbish. Assume Vince won, and then stood down in three or so years time. Jo will only get the job if the membership elects her. This is tittle tattle created by the media (who hate us) and want us to waste time on internal arguments instead of concentrating on the issues facing the UK.

There will always be rumours, and often they will be created specifically to cause damage or distract from the messages we are trying to communicate. It’s a judgement call whether or not to address them head on with a statement, or if in providing a usable quote, we give the story a springboard to be reported more widely.

As someone who is no longer a news junkie anymore. I dip into a number of TV news channels and follow the political coverage on a number of programmes. Not one has yet given any coverage, that I have seen, about Tim resigning or Jo becoming deputy leader. No doubt there must have been some mention of this, but as Lib Dems we often forget about what the general public are aware of.

I was told about Tim’s resignation by a friend and at a social event that evening, nobody was aware he had resigned.

I checked this out with a few other people the next day and not one was aware of Tim’s resignation. Understandably there are other more pressing news items at the moment, but we should not underestimate the complete lack of interest our party is now generating.

Layla Moran is one of the new MPs being interviewed on BBC TV prior to the Queen’s Speech. No deals. She held her own. A Sikh MP wearing a turban was polite and measured. A Scottish Conservative was claiming areas of overlap between the Conservative and Labour manifestoes. We will see whether the Labour leadership decides agrees or whether they will continue tribal politics. Grand coalitions have happened in Germany, but in the UK only in wartime.

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